Can't argue with this, Helo knows his guns. I am fortunate enough to own a P30 .40 cal, P30L 9, and the HK 45. Best guns I own. Don't get me wrong i love glocks and I own/ owned the first gen glock 21 all way through 4th gen .40 cal. full size - babies. Along with Kahr all the way down to Bersa .380 for the wife. You will spned all of that 1K on one but they are well worth it IMO.

Also good advice. You could also substitue a 12 gauge shotgun for home defense, but the youth model would be a better choice if a smaller framed SO or teens may need to handle it.

The Glock 19 is always a good choice for a self defense gun. I'd suggest one thing to consider, though: will you be pleased cc a double stack mag handgun or will you rather have a single stack mag handgun. Guns like the M19 (and most service handguns) have double stack mags to increase mag capacity. OTOH, this makes the grip of the gun much thicker. Some find it more of a problem to cc a double stack mag handgun. There are now a bunch of single stack mag handguns that are designed for the cc crowd. Not only should you handle (and preferably shoot) the possible new gun before purchsing it, but you should also try to determine beforehand what a double stack gun feels like w/ cc and whether that suits you.

If you're interested in a single stack handgun, there are a bunch of them, including (I'll just list the 9mm's, but some are in 40 as well):

This is my main beef with Glock. Even though it's a double stack magazine, the grip doesn't need to be so damn fat and awkward. If other gun companies can make comfortable grips with the same capacity (XD, M&P, SR) why can't they do it? The grip angle is also extremely exaggerated.